Julie Englander

Weekend Edition Host

Julie Englander is the local host of Weekend Edition on Iowa Public Radio and also serves as a substitute host for Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Midday breaks.

With more than thirty years in radio, Julie has a wide range of experience from producing award winning news stories to interviewing authors on a long-running literary program. She started in commercial radio but joined public radio in the 1980s and has been with Iowa Public Radio since 1988. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Iowa.

If you’re looking for a healthy way to start the New Year, take a hike. IPRs Julie Englander spoke with Todd Coffelt, the bureau chief for state parks with the Department of Natural Resources. He says on January first, Iowa State Parks are participating in America’s State Park’s First Day Hikes…

For more information on Iowa State Parks First Day Hike go to the Iowa Department Natural Resources events calendar at www.iowadnr.gov.

The incumbent candidates in Iowa’s second and fourth Congressional Districts will return to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Democrat Dave Loebsack of Iowa City won against Republican Dr. Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Ottumwa. This is the third time Miller-Meeks has challenged Loebsack, who will return to Congress for a fifth term.

In his victory speech, Loebsack said he’ll keep working for the middle class, not forget where he came from, and work across the aisle.

Effigy Mounds-Yellow River Forest in northeast Iowa’s Allamakee County is designated as the first globally important bird area for Iowa, and it’s all because of a very small blue and white bird with a lovely song called the Cerulean Warbler. Bird Biologist with Iowa DNR Bruce Ehresman says it’s the largest important bird

conservation area in the state with about 135 thousand acres….

A dedication of the state’s first globally important bird area takes place May 31st at the Yellow River State Forest headquarters.

Iowans can join others across North America to view an astronomical phenomenon very early Tuesday morning. Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Iowa Steven Spangler says a total lunar eclipse will begin at one am and last for about an hour and half…

Although the current weather may not feel like spring is near, many birds are already beginning to migrate. And that includes the Rusty Blackbird. But the species is declining. And that is where the Rusty Blackbird Spring Migration Blitz comes in. It’s a bird count of sorts. The event’s Iowa coordinator Chelsea Underwood says there are several ways to identify the bird…. For more information go to www.rustyblackbird.org. Or, contact your local bird-watching group.

Winterset is known as the birthplace of John Wayne, but the town also claims real life hero and art conservator George Stout who rescued hundreds of pieces of art work from being destroyed by the Nazi’s during World War Two. Stout is profiled in the book, Monuments Men, and a film of the same name starring George Clooney, opened this weekend across the country. Winterset Public Library director Nancy Trask says when he was younger George Stout was quite an actor…

She’s known as D1. She hatched about three years ago, one of the offspring of the now famous Decorah eagles that have been followed over the internet by thousands of viewers. But D1 is special, and it’s in the way she travels. Executive director of the Raptor Resource Project Bob Anderson spoke with IPR’s Julie Englander. He says after she fledged, they outfitted D1 with a solar powered transmitter.

Executive director of the Raptor Resource Project Bob Anderson says you can follow D1 and the other Eagles at raptorresource.org.

Iowa City Girls on the Run coach and mentor Kelly Teeselink today (Saturday) is running the North Face fifty Mile Endurance Challenge in Wisconsin. It's forested trails and steep hills hundreds of feet up. She says she’s fit to take on endurance races but three years ago she was not. After graduating from college she was unhealthy and had gained weight…

The splendor of watching our national symbol soar over Iowa skies is more noticeable than in the past. The Bald Eagle is making a comeback from years of being on the endangered species list. But, although the threat of the poisonous insecticide DDT, which thinned the bird’s eggshells, is banned there are other perils. Karen Disbrow is president of the Iowa City Bird Club. The Club is taking part in Saturday, February 9th Eagle Expo in Coralville, which features speakers and exhibitors at the Brown Deer Golf Club and eagle viewing at the Coralville Dam spillway.

At the invitation of Iowa’s Poet Laureate Mary Swander, who is of Irish ancestry, the theatre troupe, Hob Nailed Boots of Renvyle, Ireland, is visiting the state giving dramatic recitals from works about the Aran Islands, the Irish famine, and immigration. We reached the troupe’s Sean Coyne from his home in Renvyle. Coyne says audiences are in for an emotional experience…

Hob Nailed Boots Theatre Tour of 3 Plays

Performed by Sean Coyne and Tegolin Knowland, written by Eamon Grennan

A prehistoric mammoth bone was discovered sticking up out of the ground on an Oskaloosa farm last weekend days after a heavy rain. Archeologist Marlin Ingalls of the Office of the State Archeologist says the femur or thighbone, which measures four feet, may be just the tip of a rare find. The location of the farm is being kept confidential to protect the site.